Federal GS Pay Scale

United States federal white-collar pay runs on the General Schedule: fifteen grades, ten steps each, with locality additions of roughly 17 to 45 percent.

Overview

The GS system sets base pay tables adjusted annually by Congress and adds locality percentages across more than thirty metro areas, with San Francisco and the Bay Area near the top. Grade is set by job duties and qualifications, and within-grade steps accrue with satisfactory service. The Senior Executive Service sits above it. Because tables are public, federal pay is unusually transparent and predictable but slow-moving, and the gap with private tech and finance is a standing recruitment complaint. These descriptions summarize the published OPM tables, which change yearly.